Wheaton/Glen Ellyn Sounds Good Choir to perform holiday melodies from around the world
Ring in the holidays with the Wheaton/Glen Ellyn Sounds Good Choir! These choristers will take you on a musical trip around the world with an uplifting selection of holiday music from Africa, Ireland, Puerto Rico, England, Mexico, and more.
The choral concert will be at 4 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 15, at Trinity Episcopal Church, 130 N. West St. in Wheaton. The concert is free, open to the public.
With songs that range from the celebratory to the spiritual, the program includes delights such as “From a Far-Off Land” (“De Tierra Lejana”), a playful, joyous traditional Puerto Rican song; the majestic, soaring “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day,” inspired by the Henry Wadsworth Longfellow poem; and “African Noel,” a bright and buoyant Liberian folk tune.
Conductor Daniel Segner leaves room for a satisfying and festive sing-along with the audience before closing the program with the lush and comforting, “I Wish You Christmas” by acclaimed English composer John Rutter. The choir is accompanied by Richard Sladek.
The Sounds Good Choir is the Chicago area’s largest no-audition choral program for adults 55 or older.
Other local chapters around the suburbs are also putting on the holiday concert, including a dementia-friendly choir for singers dealing with memory loss.
The Hinsdale concert will be at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 11, at The Community House, 415 W. Eighth St. in Hinsdale. It will be conducted by Jonathan Miller and Daniel Segner, and accompanied by Richard Sladek.
The Oak Park/River Forest choir will be performing at 7 p.m. Friday, Dec. 13, at Pilgrim Congregational Church, 460 Lake St. in Oak Park. It will be conducted by Linda Crabtree Powell, and accompanied by Richard Sladek.
The Edgewater choir, conducted by Amy Wurtz, will be putting on two concerts, at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Dec. 16, and 2 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 17, in the gathering room at The Admiral at the Lake, 929 W. Foster Ave., Chicago.
The final concert of the holiday season will be by the Gold Coast Sounds Good at 2 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 19, at Fourth Presbyterian Church, 126 E. Chestnut St., Chicago. It will be conducted by Jonathan Miller and Linda Crabtree Powell, and accompanied by Amy Wurtz.
Choirs are forming for the spring session. They offer Sounds Good Choir sessions in eight Chicago-area communities during the 15-week spring and fall sessions. Each choir rehearses once a week and concludes the session with free community concerts.
Spring choir locations include: Arlington Heights; Chicago’s Hyde Park, Gold Coast and Edgewater; Evanston; Hinsdale; Oak Park/River Forest; and Wheaton/Glen Ellyn.
In the summer, they offer an eight-week “Summer Rocks” session, and the concerts include a live four-piece band made up of some of Chicago’s finest professional rock musicians.
For more information, visit soundsgoodchoir.org.